The Times November 18, 2005
London bomb victim lied about rape history
By Rajeev Syal
Garri Holness, seeking compensation after losing a leg in the July 7th bombings, has been revealed to be a convicted rapist.
A PROMINENT victim of the July 7 bombings has admitted that he is a convicted rapist who lied about his past.
Garri Holness, 38, who lost a leg in the attack at King’s Cross, confirmed that he was jailed for seven years for taking part in a brutal assault on two schoolgirls twenty years ago. The musician, from Croydon, South London, also confessed to lying when he claimed that his rape conviction had been quashed on appeal.
He has campaigned for an increase in the £50,000 compensation for the loss of his leg; a victim of rape receives £13,500. He was paid £700 by the BBC to appear in six programmes charting his recovery.
Mr Holness, then known as Gary Linton, was one of six men who attacked two 16-year-old girls in Brixton, South London, in January 1985. The gang, known as the Young Raiders, dragged the girls into an undergound garage, where they were raped 45 times. A knife was held at the girls’ throats during the attack.
Mr Holness, whose gang name was Star, was one of four men jailed and was told by the presiding judge that he could have stopped the rapes, but failed to do so. He was freed after serving three years of a seven-year sentence. After being freed, he changed his name to Garri Holness, using his mother’s maiden name.
On Tuesday, Mr Holness told the Daily Mail about the conviction, but claimed that he had been cleared after a lengthy appeal. Yesterday, it emerged that he had lied. “I knew all of this was going to come out and I was scared and confused,” he said.
Mr Holness has become one of the most recognisable victims of the bombings. Yesterday, Lambeth Council withdrew its invitation to him to switch on its Christmas lights in Streatham, South London.
thetimesonline.co.uk
London bomb victim lied about rape history
By Rajeev Syal
Garri Holness, seeking compensation after losing a leg in the July 7th bombings, has been revealed to be a convicted rapist.
A PROMINENT victim of the July 7 bombings has admitted that he is a convicted rapist who lied about his past.
Garri Holness, 38, who lost a leg in the attack at King’s Cross, confirmed that he was jailed for seven years for taking part in a brutal assault on two schoolgirls twenty years ago. The musician, from Croydon, South London, also confessed to lying when he claimed that his rape conviction had been quashed on appeal.
He has campaigned for an increase in the £50,000 compensation for the loss of his leg; a victim of rape receives £13,500. He was paid £700 by the BBC to appear in six programmes charting his recovery.
Mr Holness, then known as Gary Linton, was one of six men who attacked two 16-year-old girls in Brixton, South London, in January 1985. The gang, known as the Young Raiders, dragged the girls into an undergound garage, where they were raped 45 times. A knife was held at the girls’ throats during the attack.
Mr Holness, whose gang name was Star, was one of four men jailed and was told by the presiding judge that he could have stopped the rapes, but failed to do so. He was freed after serving three years of a seven-year sentence. After being freed, he changed his name to Garri Holness, using his mother’s maiden name.
On Tuesday, Mr Holness told the Daily Mail about the conviction, but claimed that he had been cleared after a lengthy appeal. Yesterday, it emerged that he had lied. “I knew all of this was going to come out and I was scared and confused,” he said.
Mr Holness has become one of the most recognisable victims of the bombings. Yesterday, Lambeth Council withdrew its invitation to him to switch on its Christmas lights in Streatham, South London.
thetimesonline.co.uk
